Amazon Echo Christmas features update lets you ask Alexa: 'Do you believe in Santa Claus?'

Enabling festive updates allows users to 'find out Santa's location'

This Christmas Amazon Echo owners can ask Alexa all sorts of Festive questions (Getty Images)

A festive update for the Amazon Echo has enabled a brand new set of Christmas features for its Alexa voice assistant.

Owners can ask the smart speaker to sing a Christmas carol, tell a Christmas story, or even find out if Alexa believes in Santa Claus.

A number of other Alexa Skills available for download include Christmas Radio, Christmas Sounds, and Christmas Countdown - all of which are free to enable.

An Alexa Skill from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) allows people to ask their Amazon Echo device for the whereabouts of Santa Claus.

"Just try saying 'Alexa, where's Santa'," the Skill's description states.

It continues: "Norad conducts a special mission tracking Santa across the globe and keeping him safe. Find out how many days are left until Santa begins his yuletide journey, follow him as he gets ready the day before his flight and hear his location as we track him across the globe on December 24th.

"You can also get facts from the Top-Secret Santa files. Only Santa knows when he will arrive at your house, but we do know he only arrives when children are asleep."

Several reviewers of the Norad feature said the app had helped them get their children to bed on Christmas Eve.

"The kids loved this and got them to bed faster too," one wrote. "Worked perfectly, thanks."

The Amazon Echo makes use of Amazon's artificial intelligence assistant app called Alexa to help around the house (Rex Features)

The smart speaker can even be used to help parents with the Christmas dinner, thanks to the introduction of cooking skills to Alexa.

"This Christmas, take away the stress of festive food preparation with a little help from Alexa; simply ask your Echo Show for recipes by ingredient, dish name or cooking method, and get instant access to some of the world’s top recipes," Amazon said.

"There’s no need to touch the screen with wet or dirty hands, all you need is your voice to cue the next steps in the recipe, and you can even set handy timers as you go along. ‘To resume your cooking session just say: 'Alexa, go back to recipe'."